“Drinking Alone under the Moon”: Calligraphy on a Wooden Board from Horyūji Temple

Tsujimura Shirō Japanese

Not on view

The potter Tsujimura Shirō is also known for his bold, idiosyncratic calligraphy style. Here he has inscribed the phrase “Drinking Alone under the Moon,” which is the title of famous poem by the Tang poet Li Bai (701-762). In the poem, the Li Bai suggests that the moon and his shadow can be companions if literary cohorts are not present. When Tsujimura presented this work to the collectors Halsey and Alice North, he mentioned that it was inscribed upon an ancient slab of wood from a building at the Hōryūji temple complex, near Nara.

“Drinking Alone under the Moon”: Calligraphy on a Wooden Board from Horyūji Temple, Tsujimura Shirō (Japanese, born 1947), Ink on wood, Japan

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